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Connecticut Pulse
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23-Year BigLaw Leader Cautions Against Chasing Money
James L. Shea Sr. spent 23 years as the managing partner and chairman of D.C.-based BigLaw firm Venable before retiring from the post in 2017. He recently spoke with Law360 Pulse about how the industry has changed over the course of his career, having had some time away from private practice to reflect before joining a small firm last year.
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Conn. AG Ends Challenge To Pay-To-Stay Prison Law
The state of Connecticut and three people formerly imprisoned have agreed to dismiss a proposed class action challenging a 1997 law that allowed the state to bill people in prison nearly $118,000 per year for their incarceration, a figure said to result in the highest pay-to-stay bills nationwide.
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Lewis Brisbois Founder, 2 Family Members Leave Firm
Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP confirmed on Tuesday that founder and chairman emeritus Bob Lewis has departed from the firm, along with his son and grandson.
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How Law Firms Are Focusing Their Pro Bono Efforts
Millions of people across the United States desperately need free or reduced-cost legal services, and attorneys and law firm leaders want to make a difference. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at firms' pro bono priorities.
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The 2024 Pro Bono Ranking: How Firms Stack Up
Law firms are often eager to burnish their social responsibility credentials by leveraging their training and experience to help communities that don’t have the resources to pay BigLaw billing rates. See which firms are leading the pack in pro bono hours.
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Law Firms Diverge As Anti-ESG Pushback Continues
A continuing onslaught of legislation and litigation opposing corporate environmental, social and governance actions has created a fork in the road for law firms, with some choosing to scale back efforts and others pushing ahead with their internal ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
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The 2024 Law360 Pulse Social Impact Leaders
Check out our Social Impact Leaders ranking, analysis and interactive graphics to see which firms stand out for their engagement with social responsibility and commitment to pro bono service.
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These Firms Are The 2024 Social Impact Leaders
Law firms are being heavily scrutinized for their social responsibility efforts, with attorneys, clients and critics all pushing for accountability. Find out which firms made Law360 Pulse's list of firms that are taking the greatest strides on social responsibility.
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Disbarment Isn't One Size Fits All For Attys Guilty Of Crimes
Attorney discipline, much like the criminal justice system, is rarely a simple math equation where authorities can plug in a type of wrongdoing and an appropriate punishment is spit out.
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Burns & Levinson Collapse: A 'Cautionary Tale' For Law Firms
After 64 years in business, Boston-based law firm Burns & Levinson LLP is closing its doors this month after a tumultuous year that saw nearly half of its attorneys leave and merger talks fail.
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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week
Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP top this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions after a California federal judge wrapped up a high-profile antitrust fight filed by Epic Games against Google that began in 2020.
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Legal Tech Funding Surges In Q3 Thanks To 3 Megadeals
Three outlier megadeals pushed funding for legal technology companies to $1.57 billion in the third quarter of 2024, up from $392.5 million in the same period last year, but the number of mergers and acquisitions fell by about 50%.
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Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz
This was another action-packed week for the legal industry as BigLaw firms made a slew of hires and a state judge was admonished for lip synching "Jump" by Rihanna in a TikTok. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
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Israel-Palestine Suits Tested In Court With Mixed Results
A slew of lawsuits related to the Gaza war in the Middle East have already yielded mixed outcomes and, in the view of some, contradictory rulings as they've moved through the courts, revealing a tension between free speech and college campus safety while also stoking concerns over the fairness of the judicial system.
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Ex-GC-Turned President Retiring From Iroquois Gas
Iroquois Gas Transmission System LP will begin the new year with a host of leadership changes, including the retirement of its general counsel-turned president.
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Robinson & Cole Unveils New Hartford Digs
Robinson & Cole LLP recently moved to a new office in Hartford, Connecticut, trading in its 40-year-old office for one with contemporary glass office fronts, more natural lighting and technological upgrades.
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McCarter & English Adds 5-Person McElroy Deutsch Team
McCarter & English LLP has continued the recent expansion of its trusts, estates and private clients practice in New England with the addition of a five-person team from McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP.
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Sanctioned NJ Firm Asks To Exit $374M Guo Ch. 11
Four attorneys for associates of convicted fraudster Miles Guo in his Chapter 11 bankruptcy — whose law firm was sanctioned in the proceedings — have urged Connecticut's bankruptcy court to let them leave the case, saying several corporate entities connected to Guo indicated their services are no longer needed.
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US BigLaw Firms Accelerate Enviro Efforts, But Diversity Lags
Amid a number of recent legal challenges, large law firms in the U.S. have amped up many of their environmental, social and governance-related efforts, with particular growth in environmental sustainability action, while areas like diversity, equity and inclusion have been less successful, according to a report out Wednesday that examined firms' public-facing communications.
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AI-Focused Exec Roles Are Having A Moment At Law Firms
Several law firms this year, including Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and McDermott Will & Emery LLP, have filled artificial intelligence-focused chief and director roles to keep up with technological advances and client demands, according to legal recruiters.
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Judge Security Data Reflects Policy Shifts As Much As Threats
Former employees of the U.S. Marshals Service say that while judicial security has never been more urgent, finding trends is nearly impossible: The way threats against federal judges are tracked has varied so much from year to year, the data is essentially meaningless.
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Conn. Ethics Board Tosses Grievance Against Ex-Town Atty
A Connecticut ethics panel has dismissed a grievance at the heart of a former town attorney's claims that the tax assessor spread lies about his conduct and character, finding that the lawyer broke no professional conduct rules and concluding no further investigation was warranted.
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More Law Firms Want To Merge, But Deals Aren't Skyrocketing
Law firm management consultants say they continue to see historic interest among law firms to engage in merger talks, driven further by a spate of big deals announced during the third quarter of the year, but the number of actual combinations inked has remained fairly steady, Law360 Pulse data shows.
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Littler Adds Excelitas Exec As Chief Digital Innovation Officer
Labor and employment firm Littler Mendelson PC has added the former executive vice president and chief information officer at photonics and light technology company Excelitas Technologies as its chief digital innovation officer.
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Law Firm Billing Rate Hikes Doubled In 2024
Billing rates for the top 100 law firms in the United States surged by 10% from 2023 to 2024, the largest rate hike in the past three years, according to a new research report on Tuesday.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Talking Mental Health: Life As A Lawyer With OCD
Kelly Hughes at Ogletree discusses what she’s learned in the 14 years since she was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, recounting how the experience shaped her law practice, what the legal industry and general public get wrong about the disorder, and how law firms can better support employees who have OCD.
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3 Innovative Ways AI May Be Used In Legal Practice
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Artificial intelligence tools will increasingly be used by outside counsel to better predict the outcomes of litigation — thus informing legal strategy with greater precision — and by clients to scrutinize invoices and evaluate counsel’s performance, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.
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Series
My Nonpracticing Law Job: Librarian
Lisa A. Goodman at Texas A&M University shares how she went from a BigLaw associate who liked to hang out in the firm's law library to director of a law library herself in just over a decade, and provides considerations for anyone interested in pursuing a law librarian career.
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Legal Briefs Can Benefit From Cleaned Up Case Citations
Federal courts have recently been changing the way they quote decisions to omit insignificant details and string cites, and lawyers should consider adopting this practice to enhance the readability of their briefs — as long as accuracy stays top of mind, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
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5 Best Practices For Firms Designing DEI Programs
Nikki Lewis Simon, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at Greenberg Traurig, discusses best practices — and some pitfalls to avoid — for law firms looking to build programs aimed at driving inclusion in the workplace.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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Ask A Mentor: How Do I Juggle Billables And Other Activities?
While involvement in internal firm initiatives can be rewarding both personally and professionally, associates' billable time requirements don’t leave much room for other work, meaning they must develop strategies to ensure they’re meeting all of their commitments while remaining balanced, says Melanie Webber at Fisher Phillips.
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Making Legal Cents: How To Adapt As Clients Tighten Budgets
Amid a dip in corporate legal spending and client pushback on bills, Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants highlights specific in-house counsel frustrations and explains how firms can provide customized legal advice with costs that are supported by undeniable value.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together
It is critical for general counsel to ensure that a legal operations leader is viewed not only as a peer, but as a strategic leader for the organization, and there are several actionable ways general counsel can not only become more involved, but help champion legal operations teams and set them up for success, says Mary O'Carroll at Ironclad.
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How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers
A new ChatGPT feature that can remember user information across different conversations has broad implications for attorneys, whose most pressing questions for the AI tool are usually based on specific, and large, datasets, says legal tech adviser Eric Wall.
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A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy
Legal organizations struggling to work out the right technology investment strategy may benefit from using a matrix for legal department efficiency that is based on an understanding of where workloads belong, according to the basic functions and priorities of a corporate legal team, says Sylvain Magdinier at Integreon.
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Series
My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter
Self-proclaimed "Lawyer Doula" Danielle Thompson at Major Lindsey shares how she went from Columbia Law School graduate and BigLaw employment associate to a career in legal recruiting — and discovered a passion for advocacy along the way.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job?
Corporate attorneys pursuing social justice causes outside of work should consider eight guidelines for finding equilibrium between their beliefs and their professional duties and reputation, say Diedrick Graham, Debra Friedman and Simeon Brier at Cozen O'Connor.
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Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law
Mateusz Kulesza at McDonnell Boehnen looks at potential applications of personality testing based on machine learning techniques for law firms, and the implications this shift could have for lawyers, firms and judges, including how it could make the work of judges and other legal decision-makers much more difficult.